A Crash Course in Self-Healing

A frequent question I receive from those who are new to healing is whether we can heal ourselves, or whether we need to have someone pray for us to be healed. Since there aren’t clear examples in the Bible of self-healing, I’d like to share a personal experience:

One night, as I went to bed, I developed sudden pain in my lower back that radiated down the back of my left leg. I’d never had this type of pain before, but I knew from transporting people with these symptoms, it was consistent with a herniated lumbar disc. The pain was severe and for a moment I panicked, thinking I’d done something to injure my back.

As I thought about the pain, I remembered that God had been speaking to me about pain returning after healing. This was a new concept at the time. (I was new to healing and had only been praying with people for about a year.) On a hunch, I took the position (in my mind) that the pain I felt was not actually a herniated disc, but an imitation of that pain, caused by a demon. I told myself repeatedly, “I do not have a herniated disc.” Suspecting an evil spirit was at work, I commanded the spirit to leave. I didn’t address the bones, nerves, or other structures in my back. I focused completely on the spirit I believed was causing the pain. After ten minutes, the pain left, but it returned 20 minutes later. When it returned, I repeated the same process and had my wife join me in the battle. We went to war against the spirit, repeatedly commanding it to leave. The pain would leave for a while, only to return later. This went on for two hours.

I became exhausted and I realized had to go to sleep—even if the pain was still there. I decided to rebuke the spirit one last time and commanded it not to return. When I went to sleep, the pain was as bad as it had been all night. But when I awoke in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find I had no pain. It disappeared overnight and never returned. I learned a great deal from this experience.

I learned that we can indeed heal ourselves. I also learned that we can have the symptoms of a condition that perfectly mimics the condition itself, with no actual injury or disease process in our body. A demon can create a near-perfect imitation of a real medical condition.

I also learned that one key to victory over the enemy lies in what we believe and what we say. I refused to believe or admit that I had a herniated disc—even though the symptoms felt exactly like it.

I also learned that although we might see the complete removal of a spirit and the symptoms it causes, it doesn’t mean they won’t return. And if the symptoms return, the strategy that worked the first time can be used again, as often as needed, until the spirit realizes we aren’t going to allow it to afflict us.

I’ve used these principles many times since then. Whether it’s a headache, cancer, a sprained ankle, or some other sickness or injury, the authority we’ve been given by Jesus over sickness and evil spirits works as well on us as it does on others.

If you’d like more information on healing, you might check out my book Divine Healing Made Simple.